Stephanie looked ill, and when the security guards stepped up to her, wordlessly followed them out. The stern looking HR manager smiled at Jolie, and then went after them.
As for Richard, he nodded and addressed the floor again.
“As you were then. The spectacle is over. Get back to work. Jolie.” He glanced her way and something inside her shifted, because there was open vulnerability in his face as he continued.
“Will you please come and see me in my office, when you can.”
Not waiting for her answer, he stalked back to his office and shut the door. The resulting click seemed to spur people back into work mode, because the office floor returned to the general hubbub of noisy activity it usually was.
How long Jolie sat there and stared at Richard’s closed door she wasn’t entirely sure, but eventually she got her feet to obey the commands of her brain and got up. She was sure every pair of eyes in the office was trained on her again, but no one said anything, and the general din continued, so maybe it was all a figment of her over active imagination, and no one actually gave two hoots about her sleeping with the boss.
Oh God, I’m such a cliché.
Richard’s deep voice bade her to enter before she’d even managed to knock at the door, and through the slats of the blind she could see him looking at her. His delectable butt perched on the edge off his desk, he looked rather more disheveled than he had earlier. His jacket was gone for starters, and he’d loosened his tie. His hair, too, looked all mussed up, as though he’d run his hands through it repeatedly, and when she opened the door and stepped through it he did it again.
He looked utterly exasperated in fact as he crossed the distance between them, and shut the door after her. The click of the lock sounded far too loud in the quiet room, and when he adjusted the blinds so that no one could look in on them, Jolie’s heart threatened to beat itself out of her chest. One hand on her throat he pinned her back against the door and studied her. The quiet intensity in his gaze was unnerving to say the least, and when Jolie couldn’t stand it anymore she croaked her question.
“Sir?”
His eyes flashed in heated approval, and his sharp inhale made Jolie feel tons better about this whole situation.
“I am still your Sir then?” he asked. She blinked at the hoarse quality of his voice, and Richard’s grasp on her turned into a soothing caress which left tingles of awareness in their wake.
“I thought I might have blown it all with what I said in there.” He looked uncertain again when she didn’t reply straight away, and he cursed softly and released her.
Her stomach dropped and she desperately wanted his hands back on her, but Richard pushed them in his trouser pockets and started pacing instead. To see this usually so controlled man losing it was something else entirely, and all the silly little seeds of hope which had taken hold in her heart despite her best efforts to squash them blossomed and bloomed.
He wouldn’t be that agitated, unless he cared for her, would he?
“Say something, little one, for the love of God, even if it’s to tell me to fuck off.”
He drew to a stop in front of her, as he ground the words out through gritted teeth, and when she didn’t reply, he reached out to her, only to fist his hand and drop it to his side.
“I’m sorry I reneged on our agreement, but I couldn’t let her get away with her conduct, and when she talked to you like that. Fuck.” He dragged a hand through his hair again and clenched his jaw. “I’ve never been so tempted to hit a woman in my life, I tell you. How dare she talk to you like that, insinuate we have something sordid going on. I … fuck it. You hate me now, right?”
He stopped speaking, and his tortured eyes widened when she put her finger over his lips and smiled.
“I could never hate you, Sir.”
The grin that spread over his face gave her the courage to continue.
“I’m just pissed that I was that transparent that everyone knew how bad I had it for my boss, that’s all.”
This time he laughed and putting his large hands on her hips pulled her closer, until she could feel the solid evidence of his erection. It branded her skin even through the layers of clothing separating them, and she sighed when he angled his head and delivered butterfly kisses along the sensitive skin of her neck.
“Sir, what are … anyone could … oh…” The rest of her murmured protest was lost in the kiss he gave her as his lips found hers, and throwing all caution to the wind she kissed him back. His groan matched hers when he took the kiss deeper, and grasping her ass cheeks lifted her up and pinned her against the wall. Jolie wrapped her arms and legs around him, and gasped her pleasure when he ground his erection into her pussy in a pretty good imitation of the real thing, while he continued to kiss her senseless. When he eventually pulled back, he grinned at her.
“That’s better, you don’t look pale anymore, and if I didn’t think we’d given the office enough to gossip about for one day, I’d bloody well fuck you right here and now.”
He smirked at her sharp intake of breath.
“With my subbie’s permission, of course.”
Jolie couldn’t help it, she laughed.
“As if it would stop my Sir if I didn’t give it. After all, I seem to recall the whole office thing was a hard limit.”
She smiled at him to show she didn’t really mean it, and Richard swatted her ass.
“Watch the sass, woman, or I’ll break that even more by spanking your insolent behind over my desk.”
He sobered when she gasped, and those blossoming seeds threatened to take over completely when he spoke again.
“I know, we’re only just starting on this journey, and it’s far too early to declare my feelings, but I meant what I said in there.” He jerked his head toward the general office floor.
“I will not stand for anyone disrespecting the woman I’m fast falling in love with.” He looked uncertain for a minute when she was too stunned to react. “At least I think it’s love. I’ve never felt like this about anyone, and I’ll no doubt make a ton of mistakes along the way, but I want you in my life, any which way that I can have you, little one, if you let me, that is.”
Jolie tried and failed to blink away the tears of happiness, and when Richard kissed them away, she simply blurted out the feelings on her heart.
“I would love that, Sir. Especially, as I think I’m in love with you, too.”
“Thank fuck for that, my sweet little subbie.”
Epilogue
Twelve months later
“What’s taking her so fucking long? She’s not coming, is she? I knew I pushed too hard for it.”
Richard ran a hand through his hair and cursed again under his breath, mindful of the disapproving look of the vicar. The small church was packed to the rafters, and there were even some paparazzi parked out front. It seemed the upcoming wedding of Richard Tomlin, brother-in-law to Lord Asterton, was headline news.
Personally Richard didn’t care one iota about any of this crap. He would have been happy to abduct his girl and get married in Vegas, but his sister—he might strangle the infuriating woman yet—had insisted that her only brother did this the right way. Hence he was standing here in a monkey suit, sweating buckets while he waited for Jolie to turn up. It had taken him long enough to convince her to marry him. She’d accepted his collar with glowing pride three months into their relationship. Not that anyone knew what the discreet platinum band gracing her slender neck really was, bar those friends they had in the lifestyle, but he held the key and her submission in his hands, and always would do.
While that had been enough for Jolie, it hadn’t been enough for him. A wedding ring on her finger would show the world in general that this woman was his, and always would be. Not least to get Maxine out of his life once and for all. The woman simply hadn’t taken no for an answer. Squashing the office rumors had been a doddle compared to that woman’s venom. A sordid exposé she’d attempted to sell to the papers had been sq
uashed by a timely injunction, and Richard had never been so glad to see the back of anyone, as when Maxine decided to resurrect her modeling career in France.
A well-known photographer had taken a shine to her, and she was enjoying her newfound fame. Jolie, being the kind hearted soul she was, had insisted they send the woman a wedding invite to show there were no hard feelings.
“She was the wife of your best friend, after all. Do this for him, Sir.”
Richard had fallen in love with Jolie all over again then, but looking round the church now, he was supremely glad Maxine had declined the invitation. That chapter of his life was well and truly closed now.
“Relax, Rich.” His brother-in-law’s deep voice shook Richard out of his thoughts. “It’s the bride’s prerogative to be late, you know that. She’ll be here. No doubt Tiff is holding her up by making sure everything is perfect, you know how she gets.”
Richard shook off Horace’s hand on his shoulder and was about to let rip, when the wedding march started up. His best man whistled through his teeth, and not caring how many rules he was breaking, Richard turned round to watch his bride’s slow progress up the aisle.
She looked stunning in her wedding dress, but it was the slow steps she took mindful of Archie’s little legs that made him fall in love with her even more.
As Jolie had no living male relative and Horace being busy with his best man duties, she had tasked little Archie with the important job of walking her down the aisle. Tongue stuck out of his mouth, in his concentration his nephew was taking this important task very seriously, and Richard knew he wasn’t the only one blinking away tears, by the time the little fellow proudly handed Jolie to him.
Richard didn’t really hear the words that bound his woman to him, his eyes only on hers and the radiant smile that lit up her face when she said, “I do.”
Finally she was his in every way.
The End
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